Butendiek offshore wind farm closes EUR-950m refinancing

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March 14 (Renewables Now) - The owners of the 288-MW Butendiek offshore wind farm in the German North Sea have completed a refinancing for the plant, raising more than EUR 950 million (USD 1bn) of senior debt.

The debt package was provided by a syndicate of domestic and international banks together with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The transaction was significantly oversubscribed, according to Helge Rau, head of mergers and acquisitions at project developer Wpd AG.

The offshore wind park is owned by Wpd, Marguerite Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Industriens Pension, Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA), Caisse des Depots and Elektrizitaetswerk der Stadt Zuerich, also known as Ewz. Danish pension funds manager PKA said in December that it had agreed to sell its 22.5% stake in the wind farm to a consortium led by Japanese trading house Itochu Corp (TYO:8001).

The Butendiek facility consists of 80 Siemens wind turbines erected just off the island of Sylt. The EUR-1.3-billion plant has been in full operation since the summer of 2015.

“The success of the Butendiek wind farm - the smooth course of the wind farm’s construction on the one hand as well as the very good performance on the other hand - has been the basis for the successfully implemented refinancing,” said Michael Dedieu, chairman of the Butendiek Investment Committee and partner of Marguerite Fund.